Mozambican Civil War

=== Foreign support and intervention ===

FRELIMO initially received substantial military and development aid from the Soviet Union and East Germany but later received support from France, the UK and the U.S. In the U.S., conservative circles lobbied for the U.S Government to provide open support to RENAMO but were opposed by the State Department, which finally gained the upper hand following the publication of numerous, detailed reports which documented RENAMO's brutality. RENAMO received extensive military and logistical support from Rhodesia and South Africa as well as organisational support from West Germany.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

In 1982, landlocked Zimbabwe directly intervened in the civil war in order to secure its vital transport routes in Mozambique, stop cross-border RENAMO raids, and help its old ally FRELIMO. Zimbabwe's help became crucial to the defence of the corridors, particularly the important Beira corridor. Later Zimbabwe became engaged further, carrying out several joint operations with FRELIMO against RENAMO strongholds.<ref name="autogenerated3"/> Thus RENAMO had to give up its base camps in the Gorongosa area. [[Tanzania]] also sent troops to back FRELIMO. [[North Korea]], the [[German Democratic Republic]] and the [[Soviet Union]] also armed and trained FRELIMO forces, with the North Koreans establishing a Military Mission in Mozambique during the early 1980s<ref name=DPRK>{{cite book|last=Bermudez|first=Joseph|title=Terrorism, the North Korean connection|date=1997|page=124|publisher=Crane, Russak & Company|location=New York|isbn=978-0844816104}}</ref> North Korean advisers were instrumental in the formation of FRELIMO's first specialized counter-insurgency brigade, which was deployed from 1983 onward.<ref name=DPRK/> East Germany provided military assistance and trained members of the Mozambican [[FPLM]] in the GDR.<ref>Klaus Storkmann, "Fighting the Cold War in southern Africa? East German military support to FRELIMO" [[Portuguese Journal of Social Science]], 2010</ref> In the spring of 1977, the [[Army of the Socialist Republic of Romania|Romanian Socialist Army]] sent 500 soldiers and officers to Mozambique. The Romanians were deployed to [[Maputo]] and [[Nacala]]. Specialized in operating tanks, these Romanian troops - under the supervision of some Soviet officers - trained Mozambican tank troops in the use of [[T-34]] and [[T-54]] tanks.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">[https://books.google.com/books?id=lRAmAAAAMAAJ&q=T-34 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. International Security Studies Program, Ballinger Publishing Company, 1988, ''Superpower Competition and Security in the Third World'', p. 100]</ref>

Malawi had a complicated relationship with both FRELIMO and RENAMO.<ref name=Arnold/> During the mid-1980s, FRELIMO repeatedly accused Malawian president [[Hastings Banda]] of providing sanctuary for RENAMO insurgents.<ref name=Arnold/> Mozambican security forces occasionally carried out raids into Malawi to strike at suspected RENAMO base camps in that country, a practice which brought them into direct confrontation with the [[Malawian Defence Force]].<ref name=Arnold/> In 1986, Malawi bowed to Mozambican pressure and expelled 12,000 RENAMO insurgents.<ref name=Arnold/> Banda explicitly turned against RENAMO after the disgruntled insurgents began targeting a vital rail line which linked Blantyre to Mozambican ports on the [[Indian Ocean]] coast.<ref name=Arnold/> Beginning in April 1987 the Malawian government deployed troops into Mozambique to defend the rail line, where they were involved in a number of engagements with RENAMO.<ref name=Arnold/>

After 1980, South Africa became RENAMO's main supporter. The FRELIMO government, led by President Machel, was economically devastated by the war and sought to end the conflict and continue the development of Mozambique. Even the military and diplomatic support with the [[socialist bloc]] could not alleviate the nation's economic misery and famine as a result of the war. After negotiations, a reluctant Machel signed a non-aggression pact with South Africa, known as the [[Nkomati Accord]]. In return, [[Pretoria]] promised to stop assistance to the MNR in exchange for FRELIMO's commitment to prevent the ANC from using Mozambique as a sanctuary to pursue its campaign to overthrow white minority rule in South Africa. Following a May 1983 car bombing in Pretoria, the South Africans bombed the capital, declaring they had killed 41 'ANC Terrorists' while in actuality killing three workers at a jam factory in Maputo.<ref name="ReferenceB">Joseph Hanlon, "Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa, 1986</ref> With the economy in shambles, Machel was forced to scale back some of the more ambitious socialist policies; in a visit to Western Europe that same month, Machel signed military and economic agreements with Portugal, France, and the UK. Collective and state agricultural programs were also scaled back, prompting concerns from the [[socialist bloc]] that Mozambique was "moving straight and naively into the mouth of the evil capitalist wolf".<ref name="ReferenceC">Paul Fauvet, "Carlos Cardoso: Telling the Truth in Mozambique" Double Storey Books, 2003</ref> The volume of direct South African government support for RENAMO diminished slightly after Nkomati Accord, but documents discovered during the capture of RENAMO headquarters at Gorongosa in central Mozambique in August 1985 revealed that the South African Army had continued and extended its already extensive logistical, communication and military support for RENAMO. FRELIMO, meanwhile, fully honoured its side of the deal to expel violent ANC members from its territory and to downgrade the ANC's presence in the south of the country.<ref name="ReferenceC"/><ref name="ReferenceB"/>

The United States was non-involved in the conflict.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zubovich |first=Gene |date=2023 |title=The U.S. Culture Wars Abroad: Liberal-Evangelical Rivalry and Decolonization in Southern Africa, 1968–1994 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaad261 |journal=Journal of American History |volume=110 |issue=2 |pages=308–332 |doi=10.1093/jahist/jaad261 |issn=0021-8723 |quote=The U.S. government largely stayed out of Mozambique's struggle for independence from 1962 to 1975 and its civil war from 1976 to 1992...  the State Department remained neutral in these conflicts}}</ref>